Posts Tagged ‘Sony’

There’s been a lot of news recently in mail-home and online streaming space, which are two places college students enjoy. The ease of getting movies mailed to you to watch when you’re bored, or the ability to go online and stream your favorite movie or that TV show you missed last week. But Blockbuster, Netflix, and Hulu have made announcements to diversify not only what you get, but how you get it. Read through to see what’s new.

Blockbuster Adds Games To “By Mail” Plans

While the company that used to be a behemoth in the rental industry flirts with bankruptcy and tries to compete with Netflix, it is trying to differentiate itself. Blockbuster By Mail, their DVD rentals at home program, announced today that games would also be included. So users can rent movies, games, and TV series at their home via the mailbox. $9 a month will get you 1 DVD or vide game at a time, with plans going up to $17 a month for 3 DVD’s or games at a time. The Total Access plans are only worthwhile if there is a Blockbuster in the area (the nearest stores are in Belpre and Parkersburg).

If you’ve been tempted by this deal, consider the major points between Blockbuster and Netflix. Sure, you get to rent games with Blockbuster. But at the same price point ($9) you could stream movies to your computer, XBOX 360, Wii, Playstation, and eventually, mobile phones. Online streaming is separate with Blockbuster, and costs vary from rental to outright purchase (but offers streaming to computers, mobile phones, and TV’s). So the question is, which do you value more? Online movie streaming, or Video Game Rentals?

Netflix Gets More Online Movies

Speaking about the whole online streaming universe, Netflix announced today that it’s increasing their streaming library in a huge way. New movies from Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate will be able to be streamed online 90 days after their DVD release, starting September 1st.

This also means that their back catalogues will also be available, starting that same day. According to the press release, this could mean nearly 3,000 new movies available for streaming via Netflix. Like I mentioned earlier, $9 will get you one DVD at a time, and unlimited movie and tv streaming.

Hulu Plus Coming

Most students don’t have TiVo’s or DVR’s on campus, and with busy lives away from the TV, yet great shows on every day, it’s hard to keep up. Hulu fixes that problem, for the most part, but if you were looking for more, it’s here.

Hulu Plus gives you access to previous seasons of shows, and unlocks a back catalogue of many other shows not available to the typical Hulu user. It also allows you to stream Hulu Plus content to your TV, Playstation 3, iPhone, and iPad (supposedly more devices are coming soon, including the XBOX 360). Costs $10 a month, but is currently in a limited preview, so you have to apply for the privilege to use the service at the moment.

Even with the monthly payment, you’ll still be forced to watch ads during the shows. And don’t worry, free Hulu will still be around.

To those of you about to embark on your annual journey to the local store on Friday, I salute you.Â You are much more brave than I.

I will be spending the day recovering from my Turkey Coma (or what I can eat of it considering my braces were just tightened…meh).

I just wanted to alert those going shopping that many deals are actually being offered online before Black Friday.Â While there will still be many many options that are in-store only deals, many (if not most) of the good deals can be had ahead of time on a merchant’s website.

My personal favorite Black Friday site, Black Friday Ads, has a list up of all the merchants that currently offer Pre-Black Friday savings.

Here’s my personal notes to this year’s Black Friday:

If you’re looking for a Wii, they are out there.Â Just not as many as were hoped.Â Big retailers to check are Amazon.com (which has been rumored to have the biggest stockpile available), Wal-Mart, and Best Buy.

There are some good deals on XBOX 360’s this year.Â However, the Arcade edition just isn’t worth getting.Â If you’re getting an XBOX, it needs to have a hard drive in it, especially after the New XBOX Experience came out.Â The Arcade 360 is $200 and comes with a controller and two games.

Wal-Mart does have an awesome deal if you’re looking to get a 360.Â The 360 Pro (with hard drive) also comes with Guitar Hero 3: World Tour (the version that comes with a guitar) for $300.

Playstation 3’s are coming down in price, but are still not quite wear they need to be to compete against the 360.Â Only buy one if you plan on watching a lot of Blu-Ray movies, as that is its strongest feature in this round of the console wars.Â I’ve seen nothing below $400.

Speaking of Blu-Ray, you can get a Magnavox Blu-Ray player fr $200 at Wal-Mart

Best Buy has a 50″ Plasma TV for $900.Â If you have the cash for it as a college student, its a great buy, as it’s a Panasonic, which is normally a good brand.

If you are looking for a comparison of all digital cameras (or TV’s, or laptops, etc, etc) then check out Black Friday Ads comparison chart.Â Buy smart…you don’t want to drop $500 on a paperweight Dynex brand.Â Ech.

Best of luck to those of you that are going out and about.Â You’ll likely need it :-).